Making a Difference; Mr. Anders Moves to Washington

By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

Published: June 23, 1991

All new chief executives like to put their stamps on their companies, but few have done it so thoroughly as William A. Anders, who took over as head of the General Dynamics Corporation on Jan. 1. Mr. Anders has jolted the military contractor by bluntly declaring that it faces a rapidly shrinking market, that it must become smaller and more productive and that its managers must focus more on profitability.

Last week, in case anyone had missed the message, Mr. Anders took another step to make clear the old days are over: He decided to move the company's headquarters from St. Louis to the Washington area.

The move affects only 275 of the company's 90,000 employees. But it signals a commitment to getting closer to the company's principal customers at the Pentagon.

For the 57-year-old Mr. Anders, remaking General Dynamics for the post-cold-war era is the latest in a varied series of high-profile jobs. An astronaut, he flew the Apollo 8 mission around the moon with Frank Borman and James Lovell. He served as executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from 1969 to 1973, and then as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Ambassador to Norway. Later, he went to the General Electric Company and Textron Inc. before joining General Dynamics in 1990 as vice chairman.

Mr. Anders alienated many employees by pushing through a rich incentive program for top executives while he was warning that nearly a third of the company's workers could lose their jobs in coming years.

General Dynamics took a big hit when the Pentagon canceled the Navy's A-12 bomber at the beginning of the year. But Mr. Anders's tenure has also been marked by some good news. The company won a share of the contract to build the next generation of Air Force fighters, an unexpected order for more F-16 fighters from South Korea and the contract for the Navy's next Seawolf attack submarine.

"We can increase profits even though the overall defense business is down because there's fat that can be cut from the system," Mr. Anders said.